This is a video to show you within only 6 minutes how to DJ mix using only your PC and without paying a penny for software, hardware or equipment. Surely, the techniques described here will be called blasphemy by many DJs but for those considering giving DJing a try, this will be a great way to get started and see where things go from there.

This video breaks the DJing process into 9 steps, some of which are dirt simple:
1. Install Virtual DJ
2. Get 2 songs, preferably dance music songs that have the words "club mix" or "extended mix" in their names
3. Launch Virtual DJ
4. Load the 2 songs into Virtual DJ, one on each deck
5. Press Synch on one of the 2 decks to get the 2 songs to be at same tempo
6. Set Crossfader completely on the side of the deck you want to start playing first
7. Play your first song
8. When your first song has about 1 minute left and its beat marker at the top is at same location as the beat marker for your second song, play the second song and the immediately hit Synch. If you don't get the 2 markers in synch, you can press stop on your second song and try again until you get it.
9. Move crossfader slowly towards the new song's deck.

#Roberto #Giuliano - alias #ReacTj, presents us a new music show with his #Reactable - an instrument which generates a complex series of sounds associated to luminous movements. It combines the idea of generative music with mesmerizing light tricks which mingle with the rhythm of the music. It is noise made into sound, #ReacTj explains. The sound of electronic music. Based in Turin, where he experiments with electronic music, he brings his music all around Europe.

Is the melody randomly created?
In some ways it is. It’s actual noise, which the #Reactable transforms into music.

How is a beat generated?
First, you have to generate a wave, such as a sinusoid. Then you can work on and elaborate the sound, which is run on a loop through fingertip control, and then you can integrate other sounds and filters.

When did you get into this kind of music?
When I got my first #Commodore64. Along the years, other electonic devices and my eagerness to experiment with them have done the rest.

Where do you perform?
All around the world, but mainly in #Italy. The highlight was my participation in the #TV #show Italia’s Got Talent #ItaliasGotTalent
How many people are experimenting with this type of music?
Very few in the world, but I think I’m the only one in Italy to have the #Reactable.

Where do you take your inspiration from?
I love #Deadmau5, even though I’m closer to dance music. I also follow my mood and the feelings I get directly from my #Reactable.

The name is usually meaningful – why #ReacTj?
#ReacTj is the contraction of #Reactable – Reac – and table jockey – Tj, an expansion of the disk jockeys.

Explanation of the setup in: 0Xuwd1o64Nk
Ultranova: ultranova
*** We've updated the Launchpad. Check out the new model: LaunchpadRGB

Detailed explanation of how the performance was put together and an overview of the setup.

Launchpad Summary:
Jointly designed by Ableton and Novation, Launchpad places Ableton Live at your fingertips. Whether you're a DJ, performing musician or studio producer, Launchpad gives you all you need to truly 'play' Live. Launchpad is ultra-portable. It is USB bus powered (no need for power sockets), and weights in at just 717gms (one third the weight of a macbook!).

With a multi-colour 64-button grid and dedicated scene launch buttons, Launchpad is purpose built for triggering and manipulating clips in Live, it also offers a totally new way of controlling Ableton Live's mixer.

UltraNova summary:
UltraNova is a 'Nova' series analogue-modelling synthesizer with a powerful effects processor. It is a single-part synth taking the legendary Supernova II synth engine as a starting point and packing it with the latest technology. It now has brand new features including wavetable synthesis, even more powerful filters, a software editor and a revolutionary new touch-sense performance mode.

The 'Nova' family was born in 1998 with the Supernova, which was the first of a series of powerful synthesisers. These quickly became industry standard 'big-synths' which are still used by countless artists and sound designers.

UltraNova is the latest addition to the family bringing the range right up to date with a host of new features and a more affordable price tag.

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*Download the song:
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More of my music:
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Live Performance/Improv on my Novation Launchpad with Ableton Live. Love this piece of gear, extremely flexible and capable of bunch of stuff. Stay tuned for a DJ set with the Launchpad and the novation Nocturn.

Jointly designed by Ableton and Novation, Launchpad places Ableton Live at your fingertips. Whether you're a DJ, performing musician or studio producer, Launchpad gives you all you need to truly 'play' Live.

With a multi-colour 64-button grid and dedicated scene launch buttons, Launchpad is purpose built for triggering and manipulating clips in Live, it also offers a totally new way of controlling Ableton Live's mixer. Launchpad's buttons can be used to sketch out beats with drum racks, and they can be assigned to other functions in Live using Ableton's 'Learn' mode.

Launchpad ships with a dedicated 'Launchpad edition' of Ableton Live 8, but can control almost any other music software using Novation's award-winning 'Automap' control software.

I just used the Novation Launchpad in "user 1" mode to control Ableton Live running Mad Zach's drumrack. I stretched or piched some of the original samples so they could match the track's key, that's it... no other samples, no other fx... and as you can see everything is played live!

I have just received a Launchpad from the good people at Novation and I am really enjoying it so far. I have already done a first impressions review comparing the Launchpad vs APC40 so I thought a tutorial might be more interesting. So in this episode I am going to cover the basics of how the different modes work. Comment if you want to see more Launchpad tutorials and I might dig in deeper!

This is Strobe, the ending track of Deadmau5's "For Lack Of A Better Name". One of the best song I've ever heard :)
It's been a long time since I wanted to cover it but I never took the time to think it through ... Until now !
I wanted to do something with the ESX because I really love to play live on this piece of gear so I tried to sync it with Ableton and fortunatly, it worked pretty well ! So the parts are written down on the electribe and routed to Ableton whose playing the sounds (except for the intro, it's written directly on Ableton).
The filming process took me a long time because as you may see, I was pretty stressed out every time I tried to record it ... Playing this 10 minute song without any mistake IS hard !
I really hope you like it :)
(Oh and sorry for the sh*ty video quality ... Someday I'll buy one of those GoPro cam ...)

For those who ask : the app on the iPad is called touchAble, please support them, they're doing a great job !

While this tutorial is demonstrated using Ableton, note that this concept can easily be applied to traditional turntable/cd deck DJing techniques - but you have to count bars as you listen. If you listen to any professional DJ mixes, or if you DJ, you've probably heard or used this technique without even knowing it.

Basically, matching tempos and beats is not enough - we need to also match musical phrases - so that both songs start a 16 bar phrase at the same time. This way, when the new song is really picking up, a significant loss will be evident in the song that is being mixed out. They naturally trade off energy and elements until the first track finally ends, and the second goes into the body of the track. This also minimizes "dead space" in the continuous stream of music.

There is a case where this won't work exactly as shown; if a song has un-even phrases in the lead-in or lead-out, Usually, this is a 16 bar phrase, with a 1 bar build for extra tension, you will need to use the clip forward and backward buttons(or bind them to a midi controller) to move 1 bar forward or backward on the song being mixed in, to compensate for the extra bars.

I hope this tutorial has been helpful. If it has, please subscribe, rate, and/or leave a comment! I'm always happy to hear that I've helped someone out.

Description:
-Introduction to controlling Virtual DJ with a Novation Launch Pad and how to get started creating your own custom mapping for the two.

Purpose of Video:
-To offer viewers the knowledge to link their Novation LaunchPad to Virtual DJ and to provide the information and digital materials needed to create their own personalized mappings. This video is only an introduction to what the Novation LaunchPad can be used for along side Virtual DJ. Below are the download links for all files mentioned in this video.

Artist: 'thesecondwall' uses UltraNova and Launchpad with Ableton Live
Track: 'Digital Heart' available on soundcloud: thesecondwall

Launchpad Summary:
Jointly designed by Ableton and Novation, Launchpad places Ableton Live at your fingertips. Whether you're a DJ, performing musician or studio producer, Launchpad gives you all you need to truly 'play' Live. Launchpad is ultra-portable. It is USB bus powered (no need for power sockets), and weights in at just 717gms (one third the weight of a macbook!).

With a multi-colour 64-button grid and dedicated scene launch buttons, Launchpad is purpose built for triggering and manipulating clips in Live, it also offers a totally new way of controlling Ableton Live's mixer.

UltraNova summary:
UltraNova is a 'Nova' series analogue-modelling synthesizer with a powerful effects processor. It is a single-part synth taking the legendary Supernova II synth engine as a starting point and packing it with the latest technology. It now has brand new features including wavetable synthesis, even more powerful filters, a software editor and a revolutionary new touch-sense performance mode.

The 'Nova' family was born in 1998 with the Supernova, which was the first of a series of powerful synthesisers. These quickly became industry standard 'big-synths' which are still used by countless artists and sound designers.

UltraNova is the latest addition to the family bringing the range right up to date with a host of new features and a more affordable price tag.

This tutorial is designed to help new DJs get to grips with the basics of Dubstep mixing with the Numark Mixtrack, although this may also help someone using CDJs too. Because all of the tracks used are in the key of E, mixing them is very easy. This should give you an idea of how to practice and what tracks to use, you can find the keys of tracks by using a piano with a trained ear or some DJ software like Virtual DJ.

I get this question a lot. People want to know what would be their best option when it comes to getting their first DJ equipment. CDJ? A controller? Turntables or a DVS?

I can't answer that with one simple answer because this will be different for everyone. What I would say is that nowadays your cheapest option would be to start with an entry controller like the Numark Mixtrack Pro 2 or the Pioneer DDJ-SB. These devices can be used see if you really like DJ'ing and they only cost a couple of hundred dollars and they do offer a lot of functionality.

DON'T SPEND HUGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY IF YOU ARE NOT SURE THAT THIS IS WHAT YOU REALLY WANT!

After a while you can always look into trying out other (more expensive) equipment, but that all depends on your goals and needs. What is it that you want to do and what kind of functionality are you looking for

- If you want to be a turntablist you should get a turntable set. If you also want to be able to take advantage of newer technology get turntables with a DVS like Serato or Traktor. Maybe add a small controller like the Novation Dicers or a DDJ-SP1.

- If you want to use what most DJ's use in the clubs you can get CDJ's.

- If you like to be mobile or do a lot of live remixing/performing a more advanced controller could be your best choice.